he should be in washington, d.c. working with the other congressional leaders to get something done. >> he obviously did put something on the table yesterday. the reviews of which have not been universally good. is this an attempt to smoke the republicans out and get you to start tabling some specific measures of your own? some dollar figures of your own, something the speaker was unwilling to do yesterday? >> well, the proposal came forward yesterday really is a joke. it's not much of a starting point from the other side of the coin here. clearly the president said over and over again he wants a balanced approach in terms of dealing with our current fiscal situation. to be balanced, he needs to come forward with significant spending reduction positions. so far just saying he wants to at some point in the future look at cutting $400 billion when under his own budget from last year would create a $6 trillion deficit over the next ten years, that's really a very poor start to his negotiation position. >> i keep hearing